[au] Narnia and the North

[the_seafarer]

There's a chill bite to the air, these days. The horses have been growing out their winter coats, and they look shaggy and plump as Caspian turns them out into the paddocks. Behind the stables, in the makeshift woodshop he'd cobbled together, the sleigh from his drawings is starting to come together. 

He hopes he'll have it finished by Christmas. With a little luck, and maybe some assistance, he thinks it should be possible. The tack, he's largely left up to Susan's devices, though he'd commission Gimli the dwarf for the various buckles and other metal pieces they'll need.

Once the horses are turned out, he gets to his other morning chores with a will, whistling cheerfully as he does. The stable stays strangely quiet around him. It takes him the better part of an hour to realize the strangeness is because he's become accustomed to Susan's cheerful presence working alongside him, talking or humming or simply working in companionable silence. 

Caspian pauses in his task – refilling the grain chest – and looks around. Susan's nowhere to be seen, and when he later wanders through the stables, checking each stall and outside, he can't find her there, either.

Comments

[the_seafarer]

The girl lowers their clasped hands and covers Susan's with her own. "I love the man I married," she says, in her clear voice. "Never did I have reason to believe he did not love me in return. And we lived well and happily together."

She wets her lip, thoughtful a moment. "Let me ask you this," she says. "You loved, before. Would you begrudge your love happiness with another? Or celebrate that he had found joy once again?"

[sai_delgado]

"Celebrate." There's no hesitation.

(go with my love)

"I'd wish him all the joy he could find, ever, ever, if ka would allow it."

And oh, but she understands the point the other is making, and her voice trembles for all that she tries to keep it steady.

"I kennit, I do. But I - I had to ask."

[the_seafarer]

The girl looks down at their linked hands, and a few long, rippling locks of her hair fall past her face. "If it were you," she murmurs. "There'd be a little sorrow in your celebration, like as not. The thorn of the rose, the bitterness that brings out the sweetness of wine."

When she looks back up, she smiles, as sweet as rose or wine could ever be. "But it would be such a small thing beside all the rest. Have joy, Daughter of Eve. I do not begrudge the time you have with him, as you do not begrudge the time I had. For I would have him have every good thing all the worlds have to offer."

[sai_delgado]

"Ye say true," she murmurs, thinking of Irene Tassenbaum and the time she'd spent with Roland. "And I say thankya for it, I do."

She smiles in turn, then, and impulsively leans forward to hug the slender starlit figure. "And he'll be here again with thee in time."

[the_seafarer]

The girl laughs and embraces her. "All times are soon," she says. "All places are here, in the end. I am glad, very glad, to have met you, Susan, Daughter of Eve."

[sai_delgado]

"We're well-met indeed," she agrees, as she sits back. Threads of light from the stars overhead pour down around them, causing all the world to gleam a faint silver. A breeze stirs, tugging at their hair and carrying the clean, sweet-smelling scent of grass and trees and the distant sea.

[the_seafarer]

"We are."

She sits back, also, seemingly enjoying the breeze that lifts her hair and Susan's and the gleaming starlight all around them. "Remember that, the next time you feel alone in the dark. Only look up at the sky to find a friend."

[sai_delgado]

"I'll remember," she promises, and her sudden smile is quick and bright as sunshine. "I've a friend who sails a ship among the stars in his world, who feels much the same."

[the_seafarer]

There's a glimmer of girlish amusement in the star-woman's glance as she looks over. "Should he ever wish to stop and converse with some," she says, serenely, "he ought. Stars can be quite fond of conversation."

[sai_delgado]

"I'll be sure and tell him." Susan can just imagine the expression on Wash's face, oh aye. "Mayhap he's never thought of it before."

[the_seafarer]

The girl doesn't laugh aloud, but it dances in her eyes. "Do," she says, and breathes deep of the sweet night air.

"Is there anything else you wish to know, Daughter of Eve? Any other questions I can answer to ease your mind? For if not..."

She nods to the vale. "I would not have you miss the merriment."

[sai_delgado]

"Ye've been very kind, lady-sai Liliandil," Susan tells her. "I've no more questions, save one."

Susan tips her head toward the sounds of distant celebration, and her fog-gray gaze is warm and hopeful. "Would'ee come with me?"

[the_seafarer]

This time, the girl nods, and smiles. "I will," she agrees. "For a little while."

[sai_delgado]

Susan beams at her and jumps to her feet, then holds out a hand to help her up.

[the_seafarer]

The girl takes her hand and rises gracefully to her feet, then walks with her back in the direction of the celebration.

[sai_delgado]

They pass near-silently over the soft grass as they climb the little rise to its crest. As they start the descent into the vale below, Susan looks around, trying to spot Caspian.

[the_seafarer]

The dance has gotten even more lively, and the vale is full now of Narnians of all sorts: Dwarves, Fauns, Dryads, Naiads, Centaurs, Talking Animals. And among them all, hair bright under the starlight, Caspian talks and laughs and embraces them as old friends.

Nothing bad could happen to Susan here, and he knows better than most that sometimes Aslan's Country provides that which could not be found anywhere else; both in the form of comfort and answers.

So when he looks up and sees the two girls standing together, hand in hand, one drenched in starlight, one bright as the morning sun, his heart gives a glad leap and he smiles as he lowers his head to them both.

[sai_delgado]

She squeezes the star-queen's hand gently. "Merry see, merry be," Susan murmurs. "He's happy, say true."

[the_seafarer]

"As am I."

She watches with a gentle smile as Caspian extracts himself from the bustle of Narnians and comes toward them with a smile that encompasses them both. The girl releases Susan's hand as he comes near and steps forward, her bare feet soft on the grass, to reach a hand out gently touching his cheek.

For a long moment, they look at one another, and then Caspian opens his arms and the girl folds into his embrace.

[sai_delgado]

For all that she doesn't feel an intruder after Liliandil's assurances, still Susan wants to give them--

(give ye joy of each other)

--a moment of peace and reunion that's theirs alone. A flurry of motion off to the side draws her attention, and Susan seizes her chance and goes a few steps off to kneel down and help a particularly young fawn who's gotten their flower-crown tangled around their neck.

[the_seafarer]

What words they might speak to each other are too quiet to hear, but the way he clasps her to himself and the look they share when finally he lets her go, his hands falling to take hers, are as clear as anything that might be said.

She curls her fingers around his, then lets go, and he watches as she walks gracefully through the ranks of Narnians, who have paused in their merrymaking to bow to her as she passes.

[sai_delgado]

Well-loved indeed, say true, and it's so very clear. Susan curtseys as well as she moves through the crowd, but stays to the outside near the little faun.

[the_seafarer]

She pauses as she reaches the other side of the vale, after stopping to speak with and smile at some of the Narnians, and turns. Across the respectful heads of the people they both loved so much, her glance meets Caspian's.

After a moment's held breath, her smile shines out, and she lifts her hands. The starlight that clings to her strengthens and glows, until she's so bright one can hardly bear to look at her. In the next moment, the glow ascends, and a bright star with clear blue light shines lovingly down upon them all.

[sai_delgado]

Susan stares upward in wonder, then turns to look for Caspian amid the gathered group.

[the_seafarer]

He's standing where the star's daughter left him, his face upturned to the sky. After a moment, he looks back down, and when his glance finds Susan, he gives her a smile of surpassing sweetness and holds out his hand.